The Mix

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Professional reviews
The Mix

Studio album by Kraftwerk
Released	1991
Recorded	1990-1991
Genre	Electronic music, Krautrock
Length	65:07
Label	EMI Elektra
Producer(s)	Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider
All Music Guide link Q Aug. 1995 Robert Christgau link
Kraftwerk chronology
Electric Café (1986)	The Mix (1991)	Expo 2000 (1999–2001)

The Mix is a 1991 album by Kraftwerk. It featured newly arranged, re-recorded versions of a selection of songs which had originally appeared on the albums Autobahn through Electric Café. Hütter stated in interviews that he regarded The Mix as a kind of "live album", as it captured the results of the band's continual digital improvisations in their Kling Klang studio. The track sequence mostly followed the same order as they were performed in concerts.

The album met with a rather mixed reception on its release. Many were disappointed at the lack of new compositions and, moreover, the production values of the re-recorded tracks did not strike many listeners as particularly cutting edge, something which Kraftwerk had previously been renowned for. The Mix was created entirely digitally, albeit during a period when the technology had yet to reach its maturity, and thus featured a sound which many listeners tend to find somewhat "sterile" compared to the analogue electronics employed on most of Kraftwerk's previous recordings of these songs.

Musically, many of the track arrangements seemed lighter than before, often featuring playful percussive effects and instrumental detours – and even slyly quoting the bass line from James Brown's "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex-Machine" on the final track.

The most changed arrangement is "Radioaktivität" / "Radioactivity", which is given additional rhythm tracks and speeded up into a 'dance' style. With additional mixes by third parties such as William Orbit, it was released as the second single from the album (the first single being "The Robots", in a completely different version to the track on the album). The intro states the name of four radioactive disasters and plants which include Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima.

The album sleeve was somewhat obtuse in the information it offered. However, the reality was that longstanding members Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos had now left the band (although Bartos claimed in later interviews that much of his programming work was still featured on The Mix, uncredited).